Since I got my Google Home I’ve been exploring all the ways I can use it in my daily life. When Google opened up Actions using APi.AI I jumped right in and built the first useful thing I could think of. The app itself is pretty simple, it parses an excel file I downloaded off the MBTA website to find the next available train time. It supports a few different queries and find the correct time based on the day of the week.

I have no plans to develop this further but have offered to send the code to the city in case they would like to develop it out themselves. You can see it in action in the Instagram post below. I was having a bit of fun with it so please forgive the unorthodox dialogue flow.